David Hempleman-Adams

Sir David Kim Hempleman-Adams, KCVO, OBE, KStJ, DL (born 10 October 1956 in Swindon, Wiltshire) is a British industrialist and adventurer.

He is the first person in history to reach the Geographic and Magnetic North and South Poles as well as climb the highest peaks in all seven continents, the Adventurers Grand Slam.

David Hempleman was born in Moredon, Swindon in October 1956. Following his parents' divorce, he moved with his mother to Stoney Littleton near Bath, and when she remarried, took his stepfather's surname Adams.

He took part in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme at school, then pursued business studies at college in Manchester and at Bristol Polytechnic. At the same time, he started climbing with fellow student Steven Vincent.

He visited Everest in 1979, climbed Mount McKinley, Alaska, in 1980, and Mount Kilimanjaro in 1981.

In 1984, he successfully completed a solo expedition to the Magnetic North Pole without dogs, snow mobiles or air supplies. Also he led the first team in 1992 to walk unsupported to the Geomagnetic North Pole. This was described in the book A Race Against Time. In 1996, he completed a solo unsupported expedition to the South Pole on 5 January, sailed to the South Magnetic Pole on 19 February, and led a team of novices to ski to the Magnetic North Pole on 15 May. The book Toughing it Out describes David's first 20 years of adventuring.

In 1998 he joined Norwegian Rune Gjeldnes in an attempt to reach the Geographical North Pole, the final leg of his Grand Slam attempt, which he described in a book called Walking on Thin Ice. He also became the first man to fly a balloon over the North Pole in 2000, a trip that emulated the ill-fated attempt by Salomon August Andrée, a Swede, to fly to the North Pole in the 19th century and which he also described in a book called At The Mercy of the Wind.

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